Dermot McElroy shot a seven-under-par 63 to open up a three-stroke gap on day one of the Clutch Pro Tour’s Motocaddy Championship at Bishop’s Stortford Golf Club as the Ballymena man looks to follow in the footsteps of Paul McBride, John Murphy and Alex Maguire and become the fourth Irish winner on the circuit in 2026.
McElroy began his opening round on the 10th and birdied two of his opening three holes before carding his only bogey of the day on 13. Three more birdies on the remaining five got him to the turn at -4, and he kept the foot down, birdieing another three of the first five on the front before parring his way home to shoot 63 and hit the front.
Play was suspended for roughly 90 minutes due to inclement weather in the early afternoon, and none of the later were able to close the gap and the three-stroke lead remained intact with three Englishmen and a Scot sharing second place at four-under.
Robert Brazill, also playing in the early wave, is next best of the Irish as he lies tied for sixth at -3. He made just three pars on his opening nine, mixing four birdies, a bogey and a double to reach the halfway mark at -1, but kept his card clean on the back, adding two birdies to end the day among four players that round out the top nine.
Daniel Mulligan is a shot further back at -2, while John Murphy and Tom Dowdall are both in red figures after one-under 69s and sharing 18th.
McBride, who is now just one win away from automatic promotion to the HotelPlanner Tour after getting his second win of the campaign at last week’s event in Turkey, overcame a slow start in which he found himself four-over through 10 to claw his way back to level-par at the end and he sits alongside Marc Boucher in a tie for 35th.
Maguire, on one-over, will likely need to improve if he’s to make the 36-hole cut, while Steven Hackett (+3), Brandon St John (+6), Scott Montgomery (+7), and Rory Williamson (+10) are all on course to miss out on the final round.
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